Guan Hanqing

Guan Hanqing

Guan Hanqing (about 1234-1300 years ago), whose original name is unknown, is named Hanqing, whose name is JiZhai (also called yizhai and jizhaisou), Han nationality, is from Jiezhou (now Yuncheng, Shanxi Province), and his native place is Dadu (now Beijing City) and Qizhou (now Anguo City, Hebei Province). The founder of Yuan zaju, together with Bai Pu, Ma Zhiyuan and Zheng Guangzu, is known as the "four masters of Yuan Opera".

His life of drama creation is very rich. There are more than 60 plays, most of which are lost. His zaju, with tragedy and comedy, reveals the decadent and dark social reality of Yuan Dynasty. His Dou E yuan, Jiu FengChen, Wangjiang Pavilion, Lu zhailang and Shan Dao Hui are all well-known works. His "Dou E's injustice" is the best and most brilliant play in Yuan Dynasty. It is like a call to denounce the rulers of Yuan Dynasty. Through the tragedy of pure and kind Dou E, it reveals the crimes of usury and exploitation, local ruffians and hooligans, officials' embezzlement and lawlessness, and the ugly nature of chaos, deformity and cannibalism in Yuan Dynasty.

In his long-term creative practice, he has formed his Zaju features of profound theme, rigorous structure, vivid image and simple language. He is a writer with the most works and achievements in the history of Chinese drama.

Life of the characters

He came from a medical family

Guan Hanqing was born in the Late Jin Dynasty. He was born in a medical family, and his living conditions were obviously superior to the ordinary people, which made him lucky to receive education in the feudal society where education was far from universal, especially in the context of years of war and social unrest, and his education level was relatively high. After the unification of the whole country in Yuan Dynasty, according to Guan Hanqing's family background of practicing medicine, he was incorporated into the "medical household" by the government. In fact, he was an ordinary lower class doctor who was close to the masses. Writing and performing activities were only part-time jobs and means of making a living.

Beipiao Dadu

Most of the Yuan Dynasty was a world-famous commercial center. Marco Polo, a traveler, described the prosperous scene of the Yuan Dynasty, with a large population, huge Chinese houses, and the gathering of people from all over the world. "The most beautiful city in the world."

After Mongolia destroyed Jin Dynasty, in order to make a living, Guan Hanqing came to Dadu and began to specialize in drama activities. Guan Hanqing was a talented and romantic man. In most of his life, he went to entertainment places to engage in drama creation activities, and even appeared in person. When he presided over the Yujing book fair, he had close contacts with Wang Heqing, Yang Xianzhi, Fei Junxiang, Liang Jinzhi, and so on. He often discussed the diction and evaluated the works together. He was nostalgic for GouLan Vasi, and he was quite familiar with some famous artists. He may have a certain relationship with Wang Shifu, the dramatist. It is said that they jointly completed the Zaju "Romance of the West Chamber", "Zhonglv putianle" and "Cui Tianle" The Sanqu of Zhang Shishi can be used as evidence.

Living in Jiangnan

In the Yuan Dynasty, besides Dadu, the commerce in Hangzhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang was also very developed. After the subjugation of the Southern Song Dynasty, a large number of northern playwrights and performers went south one after another to make a living. Guan Hanqing also went south to Yangzhou, Hangzhou and other places to continue to engage in his artistic activities. He was deeply impressed by the prosperity of the south. After performing and traveling in Hangzhou, he once praised Hangzhou with the words of "a beautiful country in the world, a romantic place in the world", describing the beautiful scenery and prosperous life of the city. Yangzhou, a talented man in ancient China, is always fond of mentioning as long as he has a good relationship. Guan Hanqing saw the Pearl curtain show here and wrote "the Pearl curtain show as a gift": "Yangzhou has beautiful scenery in ten li, and there are immortals in it". The story of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies is staged. He also met with the disciples of zhulianxiu, such as Sai Lianxiu, Yanshan Xiu, Hou Shuaxiao, heigoutou, and shunshixiu, whose uncle is Zunwang and Qing.

Literary achievements

Zaju

primary coverage

Guan Hanqing's Zaju covers a wide range, involving almost all areas of social life in the Yuan Dynasty

The first kind of public case drama exposes the political darkness and the tyranny of the rulers, touches on the sharp social contradictions, and praises the people's resistance and struggle. Such as "Dou E yuan", "butterfly dream", "Lu zhailang" and so on. The most representative work is Dou E yuan, which is listed in the world tragedy, reflecting the people's struggle spirit and accusing the society of darkness. The work describes a weak and helpless widow Dou E, who was framed as "father-in-law of drug death" and beheaded under the persecution of Taowu, a corrupt official. Dou E's unjust case is of great typical significance. With a high sense of social responsibility of "human life is of great importance to heaven and earth", the writer puts forward the universal problem of "every official (or people) has no intention to do justice, which makes it difficult for the people to speak" in feudal society, and strongly accuses the feudal system of being the enemy of the people and destroying the people.

The second kind of marriage and love drama mainly describes the life and struggle of the lower class women, highlights their bravery and tact in the struggle, and affirms women's independent choice of marriage. Those seemingly powerful villains, in front of smart opponents, are jolted like balls of vent, so the works also have more comic flavor. For example, jiufengchen, wangjiangting, jinxianchi, tiaoyue, baiyueting, etc. Among them, jiufengchen is the most representative. In "save the wind and dust", song yinzhang, a prostitute, fell in love with an Xiushi, a poor scholar. Later, she greedily married Zhou she, a rich businessman. As a result, she was beaten and scolded by both the morning and the evening and suffered a lot. Prostitute Zhao Pan'er pretends to marry Zhou she, and designs to rescue song yinzhang. Song yinzhang married an Xiushi. The work sympathizes with prostitutes and Confucian scholars at the bottom of the society and exposes the hypocrisy and cruelty of officials and businessmen.

The third kind of historical drama expresses his criticism of the darkness of the social reality and his desire for the hero's rebirth by creating the image of the hero, praising the hero and giving the hero the mission of saving the common people. Such as "single sword club" and "Xishu dream". Based on the biography of Lu Su in the annals of the Three Kingdoms, this paper describes the story of Lu Su, a famous Minister of the state of Wu, who invited Guan Yu to a banquet in order to ask for Jingzhou, and Guan Yu went to the party alone, creating a heroic image of awe inspiring righteousness and fearlessness. These historical plays of Guan Hanqing come from historical biography, but they are beyond historical biography. His foothold is not to reappear the truth of history, but to integrate a large number of realistic contents with historical themes, and to embody the spirit of the times and the basic characteristics of dramas in historical dramas. This is the essence of Guan Han Qing's historical plays. In these historical dramas, Guan Hanqing praises the just cause, praises the heroic achievements, and shows the love and hate feelings of an upright dramatist, which is consistent with the spirit embodied in his other dramas.

Due to the limitations of history and class, Guan Hanqing criticized the feudal rulers from the standpoint of the peasantry, and his views on the peasant uprising in Huangchao and Liangshanpo still could not get rid of the traditional prejudice; some plays publicized feudal ethics, such as "mother Chen teaches children"; some works had a style of GouLan tease, revealing vulgar taste. In particular, it should be pointed out that Guan opera is full of illusions about honest and upright officials and "Wang Fa". Although it also shows the writer's sense of justice, it is just a kind of fantasy of social reformism and can not be a panacea for social ills.

artistic characteristics

Guan opera is a peak of Chinese classical opera art. Guan Hanqing skillfully used the form of Zaju in Yuan Dynasty and made outstanding achievements in shaping characters, dealing with dramatic conflicts and using dramatic language.

1. In Guan Hanqing's plays, shaping the positive protagonist is the first priority. In the history of Chinese literature, no dramatist has created so many vivid artistic images as Guan Hanqing. Like prostitutes, Zhao Pan'er, song yinzhang, Du ruiniang and Xie Tianxiang have different personalities. Under the oppression of Lu zhailang, both had the unfortunate experience of his wife being robbed, but the attitude of the middle-level official Zhang Li and the craftsman Li Si to the incident was quite different.

2. In dealing with dramatic conflicts, Guan Hanqing is good at refining exciting dramatic plots. There are good and innocent widows who have been wronged and the world has changed color; there are heroic achievements that single handedly subdue the enemy; there are husbands who bear the pain to send their wives to be occupied by powerful men; there are mothers who let their own sons pay for their lives and save their ex-wives and sons; there are maidservants who are abandoned by their loved ones and forced to say goodbye for them. These plots seem to be both legendary and rooted in the deep soil of reality.

The dramatic conflict of Guan opera is also reflected in its simplicity of the play, and the dramatic scene changes with each step. This way of dealing with the dramatic scene, swaying and unpredictable, not only out of the audience's mind, but also in the character's sense, the effect is very strong.

3. Guan Hanqing is an outstanding master of language art. He absorbs a lot of folk vivid language, melts exquisite classical poetry, and creates a vivid and fluent language style. He is an outstanding representative of the school of natural color in Yuanqu, who truly achieved the goal of "people learn their dialects, things reflect their natural color". There is no boundary overflow, and there is no false language.

The natural style of the language of Guan opera shows: in the characterization of the character language, Qu Bai's voice is very similar to that of the character, which is in line with the character's identity; the author does not care about new skills, carving and painting, and creates a distinctive popular, fluent and vivid language style.

Guan Hanqing is a dramatist who is familiar with stage art. His drama language is both natural and professional. It has the characteristics of "melting into the ear", and there is no problem of obscurity. Unlike some literati dramas in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they are fond of using allusions and dropping books. Guan's opera was also just right in the arrangement of Ci, Qu and Bai. Qu and Bai were born together and naturally pressed. He was worthy of being a "editor in chief" among the dramatists at that time

Chinese PinYin : Guan Han Qing